• by Karlene Lukovitz  @KLmarketdaily, June 30, 2021

A first-party data initiative with more than 30 publisher, demand-side platform and advertising buyer participants has completed its first phase, reports independent sell-side advertising platform Magnite, which is leading the effort.

The Publisher First-Party Segments initiative, designed to provide an accurate, scalable targeting alternative to cookies that safeguards user identity and browsing history, is already handling more than 3 billion transactions daily, according to Magnite.

Participants include Adform, CafeMedia, Condé Nast, Future Publishing, Goodway Group, Havas, Hearst Magazines, IBM Watson Advertising, Insider, Maven, Meredith Corporation, Merkle|DWA, MiQ, News Corp, Permutive, Publishers Clearing House (PCH), PubMatic, among others.

Participating publishers are testing publisher first-party segments.

The first phase focused on helping publishers define and assemble segments using existing IAB Tech Lab industry standards, establish a testing framework, and execute real-time transactions against seller-defined audiences without the use of third-party cookies.

As of this month, Magnite has moved the effort into Prebid.org, where it will be expanded under the guidance of a Prebid task force and IAB Tech Lab’s addressability working group.

To continue development and expansion, the initiative is expected to adopt the IAB Tech Lab’s Seller-Defined Audience specification.

The initiative “offers a much-needed alternative to targeting without third-party cookies, while providing access to rich publisher data that enables us to create more meaningful connections to users for our brands,” stated Tom Grant, senior vice president, group director, investment pperations at Havas Media.

“The rapid launch and testing with real advertising budgets speaks volumes for what we can accomplish when the industry comes together,” said Garrett McGrath, vice president of product management at Magnite. “The resulting initiative presents publishers with an addressability approach that has both high accuracy and scale through federated segments.”